Disclaimers: These are
original characters in an original story that belongs solely to me. I dreamed
the whole thing, and believe me, if I can get half of it down on paper I think
youre gonna like it. Any resemblance to anyone, living or dead, is purely
coincidental. This story will eventually deal with same sex couples, so if this
is illegal where you live or it just plain is not your bag, please move on.
You may find some bad language, so if it offends you, I apologize.

Chapter 6

The dragon
was now very close. This being enthralled her. It was not like this when she
was forced to bond with Mreelith. She remembered staring into his muddy brown
eyes and feeling absolutely nothing. She would have rejected him completely
if she had had her choice. What a disaster that turned out to be. The dragon
bared her teeth in anger, her eyes taking on a hint of red. Well, she had her
choice now. True, it was almost too late, but this woman will just
have to do. She shook her head slightly, regaining some of her senses. Time
to find out if she would be able to have any control over this one. She cocked
her head to one side, looked at the being standing at her feet, and projected.

The stranger thought
she was going to die. The dragon was right in front of her when it bared its
shining, dark silver teeth. She could have sworn its eyes turned a bit
red, too. Then the worst pain she had ever imagined tore through her skull.
She flung the shield down and grabbed her head as tears poured out of her eyes.
Her name was ripped from her mind, whispers of it echoing for heartbeats afterwards.

"Rhinn McKittrick Rhinn,
Rhinn, Rhinn, Rhinn,
Rhinn,
Rhinn"

As the pain started
to ease, Rhinn stood up a bit. She was just about to remove her hands when the
pain returned, far worse this time as entire parts of her life seemed to be
removed from her mind, read, and then returned. The echoes increased. Rhinn
was crying freely now, curled on the cavern floor, arms wrapped around her head.
He mothers name her fathers grandparents...names
of other relatives she didnt consciously remember her siblings
names ages

The pain increased;
she was actually reliving some of her worst moments: the fights in school the
knife fight on the street that one horrid night in jail he fathers
death her mothers betrayal her lovers denial. It was like
watching life in slow motion. Knowing what was going to happen, knowing what
went wrong, willing it to change but unable to affect anything. Rhinn couldnt
take any more. With all the strength she had left she concentrated on one word

"STOP!!!"

The word echoed in the
cavern as if she had spoken it out loud. The pain in her head was gone instantly,
although a few whispers could still be heard in the back of her mind. Once she
could think clearly again, she slowly picked herself up off the ground and looked
accusingly at the dragon.

"What are you," Rhinn
breathed, not expecting an answer.

Now it was the dragon
writhing on the ground in pain as Rhinn got the answer to her innocent question.
Rhinn could only equate the experience to watching a badly edited movie while
hopped up on acid. There were swirls of color and sounds that she didnt
understand: odd geometric shapes and music that made no sense bits of
scenery and architecture that she had never seen before a sense of overwhelming
loss and sadness hatred for a dull yellow dragon with dark eyes and
a name

"Lyra," Rhinn breathed.
"Youre name is Lyra."

The dragons pain
seemed to end; she sat up slowly, curling herself into the same position she
had been in when Rhinn entered the cave.

"And you are Rhinn,"
Lyra projected carefully, the question clear. She heard the raw pain in the
humans low, gravelly voice and realized that Rhinn hurt just as much as
she had. That was rare; usually only one of a bonding had the mind pain.

"Yes," Rhinn spoke aloud
just to hear her own voice. It was odd having anothers thoughts in your
head. Even when it, no she, Lyra, was not speaking, Rhinn could still feel a
small presence in the back of her mind; a sort of greenish silver speck that
she knew must be some part of the dragon.

Lyra noticed that Rhinn
seemed to have processed the whole experience rather well. She did not seem
upset with Lyra for causing her such pain, nor did she seem to have any lingering
after-effects. Lyras bonding with Mreelith had left her ill for a week,
while he suffered nothing at all. Lyra remembered the few times she had tried
to speak with her self-appointed "caretakers" over the years centuries?
The men always howled in pain and got half of the information she told them
wrong. This did not seem to have happened with Rhinn. Perhaps with humans you
must be bonded in order to mindspeak correctly? How strange

"What happened to me,"
Rhinn asked, breaking the dragon out of her reverie.

"We are mind-bonded,"
Lyra projected with a slight air of irritation. It should have been obvious;
couldnt the female sense Lyra in her mind even now? Lyra could definitely
feel Rhinn; a spot of pure blue in the dark expanse of her brain, slowly pushing
out the dot of yellow that still remained.

"Oookay Ive
read a lot of science fiction, so Im gonna take a guess that that would
explain why I can feel a little green blob in my head with your name all over
it. But it doesnt explain why I felt like my head was going to explode
and why I was treated to a special viewing of the worst parts of my life." Rhinns
voice dropped even lower, her anger evident. To her, this beast looked way too
smug.

Lyra was confused, and
a bit intimidated, by the creatures sudden anger. She took a slight step
back, trying to distance herself from Rhinns bristling form.

Rhinn would have laughed
out loud had she been in a better mood. The sight of the dragon backing away
from her was comical. She relaxed a bit, reaching up to rub the back of her
very stiff neck. That was when her fingers brushed against the necklace and
stopped. She hadnt been wearing a necklace when she left her apartment.
She put her fingers under the chain and tried to hold it away from her neck
to see what it looked like, but it was too tight. Failing that, she let the
tips of her fingers trail over it.

"Uh-oh," Lyra thought,
as she stopped her retreat. The human had discovered the collar and was touching
it very carefully. How to explain this

"WHAT THE HELL IS ON
MY NECK," Rhinn was not amused any more.

"Umm, well ," the
dragon let her projection fade. Rhinn was looking even more hostile now than
before. Lyra flared out her wings and arched her neck in response. Now it was
the humans turn to take a step back.

"Its nothing,
really. It signifies that you are a Kaleran, a truebond," Lyra projected in
a soothing tone.

"Great, okay, so now
I have some new jewlry," Rhinn stated sarcastically, "but I notice that you
are not wearing one."

In response, Lyra waved
one clawed hand in front of her, leaving behind a rectangular shaped, blue swirling
mass about six feet tall. The blue colors calmed down and solidified into a
silvery mirror. Rhinn walked slowly towards it, heedless of her close proximity
to the dragon.

The image in the mirror
held her, transfixed. There she was, looking like she normally did, with one
exception. Draped around her neck was the most beautiful choker she had ever
seen. It hugged her neck so tightly that she could barely slip a finger under
it, but the metal felt almost soft, not constricting in any way. It was rounded
over, about two inches thick, and made of what must have been millions of tiny
individual links all woven together to give the overall appearance of scales.
It was a dragon that circled her neck. At the hollow of Rhinns throat,
the animal was holding its tail in its forelegs with its head
resting on the crossed hands. A bright emerald shone out of the one exposed
eye. The rest of the piece was a brilliant silver color that shone against Rhinns
tanned skin.

"It Its nice,"
Rhinn stuttered. She swallowed hard and continued. "But I still dont understand
why Im wearing it and why you dont have one." She looked expectantly
at the dragon, craning her head to make eye contact.

Lyra looked down at
the human, slightly uncomfortable with the decreased distance.

"It shows that you belong
to me and are not available for any other bonding. It is a common practice,"
she projected.

"This piece was created
for me by Arthiel, one of our finest craftsmen." Lyra crested her neck, proud
of the origin of her bonding gift. "I am not wearing one because you have none
to give. Now, we have wasted enough time. You humans are always so full of questions.
It is time to leave."

Lyra waved her hand
again, causing the shield that was on the cavern floor to float across the air
towards Rhinn, who caught it reflexively.

"But where " Rhinn
had no time to finish her sentence as she felt herself grasped in two clawed
hands, pulled close to the body of the dragon, and then enveloped in a flash
of yellow light.